A Meeting of 'MINDS' Motorcycle Tour

In September we set out on our charity tour in support of BRACE and for me …..

“…. we created a unique opportunity to raise awareness for BRACE by simply doing something I love, riding my motorbike!”

It was a great experience. It opened our eyes to the issues of researching medical conditions and not just in this ‘cerebral’ scenario. Also we learnt there is a definite hierarchy of charities. In doing their ‘thing’; raising awareness, collecting funds and by generally doing good, they also compete for our fiscal attention. It is very competitive.

The tour was very much a Meeting of ‘MINDS’, as it “was a journey to a better understanding of Alzheimer’s.”

We spent time with Mark Poarch (CEO of BRACE) and got to understand his concerns and aspirations in his continual quest to raise funds for Dementia research. We also spent time with those at the ‘rock face’ of research, those trying to make a difference, which was a great privilege.

A lot of what was said had a ‘mutual’ resonance with each Professor or Doctor that we interviewed, although each had their own concerns and issues that they had to address daily.

We also got to see some beautiful scenery whilst we traversed the 2,500 miles over 11 days with 70 hours in the saddle from Bristol through to Cardiff, London, Dover, Dunkirk, Lille, Dijon, Briancon, over the Alps, Genoa, back over the Alps, Castellane, Montpellier, Limoges , Caen, Portsmouth and back again.

Finally, a very big thank you to the following people who have helped us with our charity tour.

Mark Poarch for resisting the pressure to get into the saddle and tour with us.

· Professeur Jacques Touchon - Chief of Neurology at the Montpellier University Research Hospital

· Whitehall Press for POS design and production.

For BMW, GoPro and Ride the World Magazine, family and friends for social media support.

If you are interested in the scenery of the Alps then please have a look at some of the route we took

So the fight goes on, and we have only just scratched the surface with what we set out to achieve. But do look out for A Meeting of ‘MINDS’ tour 2016, as you never know!

So how can you help?

From now on, leading up to and during the tour we will be sending out information via email and social media. If we email 100 people, they then send information onto another 100 people, and so on and so on we then have the start of a great awareness campaign for BRACE and Alzheimer's. Maybe a few will donate, but the important thing is purely the awareness.

One final thing, part of the research interview process will be to talk specifically about Alzheimer’s as a multi-dimensional condition. But we also wanted to create a generic bank of research questions. So if you ever had a question about Alzheimer’s now is your chance to ask, via me. So if you wanted to send this on, please do. If you wanted to follow us now on Twitter/ Facebook etc, please do. Or send us a question, please do to martynh@miller-ad.com. Wish us well on our journey, and thanking you in advance for helping to PASS THIS ON.